Mağaraköy or Mağara (; ) is a village in the

İdil District İdil District is a district of the Şırnak Province of Turkey. The seat of the district is the town of İdil and the population was 77,105 in 2021. Its area is 1,148 km2. The district was formed in 1937. The western part of the district ...

of the

Şırnak Province Şırnak Province (, ) is a Provinces of Turkey, province in Turkey in the Southeastern Anatolia Region. Şırnak Province was created in 1990, with areas that were formerly part of the Siirt Province, Siirt, Hakkâri Province, Hakkâri and Mardin ...

Turkey Turkey, officially the Republic of Türkiye, is a country mainly located in Anatolia in West Asia, with a relatively small part called East Thrace in Southeast Europe. It borders the Black Sea to the north; Georgia (country), Georgia, Armen ...

. The village is populated by

Kurds Kurds (), or the Kurdish people, are an Iranian peoples, Iranic ethnic group from West Asia. They are indigenous to Kurdistan, which is a geographic region spanning southeastern Turkey, northwestern Iran, northern Iraq, and northeastern Syri ...

of the Salihan tribe.

History

Kīvakh (today called Mağaraköy) is identified with the town of Kibaki, which submitted to

Ashurnasirpal II Ashur-nasir-pal II (transliteration: ''Aššur-nāṣir-apli'', meaning " Ashur is guardian of the heir") was the third king of the Neo-Assyrian Empire from 883 to 859 BC. Ashurnasirpal II succeeded his father, Tukulti-Ninurta II. His son and s ...

during his campaign against

Nairi Nairi (, also ''Na-'i-ru''; ) was the Akkadian name for a region inhabited by a particular group (possibly a confederation or league) of tribal principalities in the Armenian Highlands, approximately spanning the area between modern Diyarbakır ...

in 879 BC. Ashurnasirpal II spent one night encamped at Kibaki and received cattle, sheep, wine, and bronze cooking-pots in tribute. It was located in the Kašiēri mountains. The

Eastern Roman Emperor The foundation of Constantinople in 330 AD marks the conventional start of the Eastern Roman Empire, which fell to the Ottoman Empire in 1453 AD. Only the emperors who were recognized as legitimate rulers and exercised sovereign authority are ...

Anastasius I Dicorus Anastasius I Dicorus (; – 9 July 518) was Roman emperor from 491 to 518. A career civil servant, he came to the throne at the age of 61 after being chosen by Ariadne, the wife of his predecessor, Zeno. His reign was characterized by refor ...

() is said to have donated the village to the

Mor Gabriel Monastery Dayro d-Mor Gabriel (; the ''Monastery of Saint Gabriel''), also known as Deyrulumur, is the oldest surviving Syriac Orthodox Church, Syriac Orthodox monastery in the world behind Mor Mattai Monastery in Northern Iraq. The monastery dint take its ...

. At the beginning of the 20th century, it was a large village and was home to the

Yazidi Yazidis, also spelled Yezidis (; ), are a Kurdish-speaking endogamous religious group indigenous to Kurdistan, a geographical region in Western Asia that includes parts of Iraq, Syria, Turkey, and Iran. The majority of Yazidis remaining in ...

Çelkî tribe. When the

Ottomans Ottoman may refer to: * Osman I, historically known in English as "Ottoman I", founder of the Ottoman Empire * Osman II, historically known in English as "Ottoman II" * Ottoman Empire The Ottoman Empire (), also called the Turkish Empir ...

called upon them to join the army in 1910s, they refused. No school existed in the village. Yazidi Kurds from the village are said to have helped the Christians of Azekh amidst the

Sayfo The Sayfo (, ), also known as the Seyfo or the Assyrian genocide, was the mass murder and deportation of Assyrian people, Assyrian/Syriac Christians in southeastern Anatolia and Persia's Azerbaijan (Iran), Azerbaijan province by Ottoman Army ...

to fight Turkish Kurds. They also provided information, weapons, and transport to the

Syriacs Syriac may refer to: * Suret, a Neo-Aramaic language * Syriac alphabet, a writing system primarily used to write the Syriac language ** Syriac (Unicode block) ** Syriac Supplement * Syriac Christianity, a branch of Eastern Christianity * Syriac lan ...

at ‘Ayn-Wardo. The village was disarmed by the Turkish state in 1926 in the aftermath of the Sheikh Said rebellion. A ruined church was extant at the village in 1978. In the 1980s, the village was reported to be populated by the Hevirkan tribe, a tribe of Yazidi belief. In 2018, the village was reported to be populated by the Salihan tribe. The Salihan tribe has both Muslim and Yazidi members, but the ones in Mağara are Yazidi. In 2022, the village had a population of 15, increased from 6 in 2012.

References

Notes Citations

Bibliography

* * * * * * * * * * * * {{İdil District Yazidi communities in Turkey Villages in İdil District Populated places in ancient Upper Mesopotamia Historic Assyrian communities in Şırnak Province